There are connectors having very small volume, such as SFP (small form-factor pluggable) connectors, X-SFP connectors for 10 GB Ethernet port, and QSFP (quad small form-factor pluggable) connectors. These small connectors, due to their small volume, do not provide sufficient position for a user to hold them and pull them out of a shielding cage thereof to achieve the purpose of replacement. Further, these small connectors tend to become damaged during the process of pulling them out of the shielding cage.
Please refer to FIG. 1. To avoid damaging the small connectors while pulling them out of the shielding cage, a connector 4 having a locking unit 41 and a pull strip 42 is developed. The locking unit 41 includes an operating section 411 and two sliding arms 412 extended from two lateral ends of the operating section 411 and slidably connected to two lateral sides of the connector 4. The pull strip 42 is a pliable strip wound around the operating section 411 of the locking unit 41. When it is necessary to replace the connector 4, a user may pinch the pull strip 42 with thumb and index finger and apply a backward pulling force on the pull strip 42, so that the operating section 411 connected to the pull strip 42 brings the sliding arms 412 to slide backward and thereby pull the connector 4 out of a shielding cage thereof.
The pull strip 42 is made of a pliable material and therefore has relatively low structural strength and break strength. Thus, the pulling force applied by the user on the pliable pull strip 42 could not be effectively transmitted to the locking unit for driving the same to move backward. Further, the pull strip 42 has smooth surfaces and the user has to apply increased force to produce sufficient friction between the pull strip 42 and the user's fingers for pulling the pull strip 42. Therefore, the connector 4 with the locking unit 41 and the pull strip 42 still has the same drawback as the conventional small connectors and could not be conveniently replaced when necessary.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved and structurally strong pull-out structure for connector, with which a connector can be easily pulled out of a shielding cage thereof for the purpose of replacement without becoming damaged.